Apple follows the artificial intelligence trend by presenting a new iPhone 16 line

After receiving a standing ovation for Monday’s event, Apple CEO Tim Cook promised that the AI ​​suite would unleash “innovations that will truly change people’s lives.”

The breakthrough, however, will not come until the new iPhones — priced from $800 to $1,200 — hit stores on September 20.

Most of Apple’s AI features will be made available as part of a free software update to iOS 18, the operating system that will power the iPhone 16, due in December. The launch language will be English, but an update to support other languages ​​will be released next year, according to Apple.

It’s all part of a new approach Apple unveiled at its developer conference three months ago, aimed at building anticipation for the next generation of iPhones amid a rare drop in sales for the well-known devices.

Since Apple’s June conference, rivals like Samsung and Google have made greater progress in artificial intelligence, a technology widely expected to usher in the most dramatic changes to computing since the launch of the first iPhone 17 years ago.

Just as Apple elevated early smartphones to essential technology for 21st-century society, the Cupertino, California, company is betting it can achieve similar success with its belated foray into artificial intelligence.

In an attempt to differentiate itself from the early AI leaders, the technology built into the iPhone 16 is being promoted as “Apple Intelligence.” Despite the unique branding, Apple’s new approach mimics many of the features already available in the Samsung Galaxy S24, released in January, and the Google Pixel 9, which arrived last month.

“Apple could have waited another year to expand, but the initial interest in AI-enabled devices from companies like Samsung is encouraging, and Apple is keen to capitalize on this market,” said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore.

In pushing into new territory, Apple is trying to maintain its long-standing commitment to privacy by adapting its AI armoury so that most of its technological tricks can be processed on the device itself, rather than relying on giant banks of computers located in distant data centres. When a task needs to connect to a data centre, Apple promises it will be done in a tightly controlled way that ensures no personal information is stored remotely.

While collecting personal data shared through Apple’s AI tools inherently reduces the chances of the data being misused or abused, it doesn’t guarantee iron-clad security. A device can still be stolen or hacked using digital trickery.

Users who want access to even more AI tools than those offered on the iPhone can team up with OpenAI to give them the ability to delegate more complex tasks to its popular chatbot ChatGPT.

While Apple provides a free version of its operating system to support built-in AI features, the chip needed to run the technology is only available in the iPhone 16 and the top-of-the-line iPhone 15 models that launched a year ago.

That means most consumers interested in taking advantage of Apple’s approach to AI will need to purchase one of the iPhone 16 models — a change investors are hoping will drive demand ahead of the holiday season.

The expected sales boom is a major reason Apple’s stock price has surged more than 10 percent since the AI ​​announcement in June. But the company’s shares were down slightly in late Monday afternoon trading after the iPhone, extending a recent decline in tech stocks that was fueled in part by concerns about how long it will take for the industry’s massive investment in AI to pay off.

In addition to the latest iPhone models, Apple also unveiled a new version of its smartwatch that will include sleep apnea detection, as well as the next generation of AirPods Pro wireless headphones, which will be able to act as a hearing aid after an upcoming software update.